Worries about the strength of the economy are exposing long-dormant party fissures that speak to the party's worry going into the election year.

This week featured the public break of Anthony Scaramucci, who was a prominent Republican donor long before he spent an infamous 11 days as Trump's communications director.

Scaramucci is predicting a "groundswell" among Republicans to consider a replacement on the 2020 ticket, while offering his services to someone who might try.

Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

President Donald Trump steps off Marine One upon arrival to Manchester, New Hampshire, to hold a "Keep America Great" campaign rally, Aug. 15, 2019.

Former Republican Rep. Joe Walsh – now a conservative radio host who long ago broke with Trump – wrote in a New York Times op-ed this week that Trump "isn't a conservative" and therefore is "worthy of a primary challenge" from the right.

On that front, Bill Weld's trip to the Iowa State Fair didn't move any needles. But another former GOP House member, Mark Sanford, said in recent days that he is "at this point, yes," to the question of whether he will consider a run for president.

Trump isn't about to lose primary states, in New Hampshire – where he was Thursday night, and where his unlikely journey through the 2016 campaign got its first victory – or, really, anywhere else.

But between congressional retirements and stirrings elsewhere throughout the party, signs are emerging of concern about the president's leadership -- as well as his electoral prospects.

As for solutions to keep Americans safe, he appeared to suggest the country could use more mental institutions.

"Years ago, many cities and states, I remember it so well, closed mental institutions for budgetary reasons. They let those people out onto the street. … We're going to have to give major consideration to building new facilities for those in need," he said vaguely.

He went on to talk about removing "deranged" people from the streets, which seemed to be a non-sequitur. Later, he repeatedly talked about the Second Amendment as if it was under potential attack.

His language was a far cry from the conversations around expanding background checks, a topic discussed again this week.

It is worth remembering that this administration actually rolled back regulations designed to make it harder for people with mental illness to get firearms, and health care experts agree that people struggling with mental illness are in fact much more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators of it.

Beto O'Rourke is back on the presidential campaign trail, but the recent massacre in his hometown of El Paso, Texas, has inspired an overhaul in strategy as he attempts to maneuver himself out of the depths of national polls.

He'll be visiting American cities that he feels have been hit hard by the current administration, and he wants to confront Trump with a warning.

"If at this moment we do not wake up to this threat, then we, as a country, will die in our sleep," the former congressman from Texas told a small group on Thursday morning at a park overlooking El Paso.

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro participate in a candidates' forum at the Black Church PAC and Young Leaders Conference beginning at 12:15 p.m. EDT in Atlanta.

Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, former Rep. John Delaney, D-Md., and Andrew Yang are in New Hampshire; Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., and former Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., are in Iowa; former Vice President Joe Biden is in Delaware; former Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-Texas, is in Mississippi; Marianne Williamson is in California.

On Saturday, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., participate in a candidates' forum at the Black Church PAC and Young Leaders Conference beginning at 11:30 a.m. EDT in Atlanta.

Also Saturday, Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Booker, Bullock, Castro, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Delaney and Yang are in New Hampshire; Moulton and Sestak are in Iowa; Biden is in Massachusetts; Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Warren are in South Carolina; O'Rourke is in Arkansas; Williamson is in California.

On Sunday, Bennet, Castro, de Blasio, Delaney, Moulton, Klobuchar, Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, and Yang and are in New Hampshire; Buttigieg, Sanders and Warren are in South Carolina; Biden is in Massachusetts; Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., is in St. Louis; Sestak is in Iowa.